I like to refer to Identigral as "she."Perhaps it is a subconscious reaction,similar to naming a car Clarice or perhaps not,it is a woman-owned company after all.She is celebrating her third year today and I thought it might be a good idea for the blog to recap our top 11 greatest blog hits. In order of decreasing popularity, they are:

1. The Rise of Suncle, Volume 1. The first article in the 3-part Suncle series looks at the Oracle acquisition of Sun and drills down into their respective identity and access management product lines, taking up identity and role manager products at both companies.When I started writing the Volume 1 post, I naturally thought of Volumes 2 and 3 but after finishing the post, I realized that it would be better to use functionally relevant titles. Thus, Volume 1 should have been named "Identity Administration" but just like you can't remove a product feature once it's released, you can't retract URLs once they're published. (Yes, I know about HTTP redirects and URL rewrites but I don't think of either as an ideal solution).

2. The Rise of Suncle, Access Management. Second article in the Suncle series that talks about Sun and Oracle access management product lines. Many mentions of fishes as in "sleeping with the fishes". Note to self: avoid watching "Sopranos" before blogging.

3. Authorization in Oracle BI Server (OBIEE). Oracle BI has been widely deployed in various incarnations so the number of visitors to this post is somewhat surprising. This fairly straightforward summary of how to go about integrating the BI Server with an external identity repository for the purpose of authorization proved to be very popular. Contains a bonus feature on how to solve the authorization problem with Oracle Identity Manager. Two for the price of one - read and save!

4. The Rise of Suncle, Directory Services. Third article in the Suncle series, narrowly losing to OBIEEeeeeeeeeeeeek (couldn't resist, sorry).This one is dedicated to (surprise, mystery, shock) directories on both Sun and Oracle side. I said that Oracle should keep Sun DS and make it available alongside Oracle Internet Directory (OID) but I now believe this was an optimistic assumption. My revised prediction is that eventually only OID will remain standing, at least as a commercial offering.

5. Generic Connector and the Temple of Doom. Appropriately titled post on connectors. This stream of consciousness could have easily rivaled Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" and might have been serialized into a comic strip had I continued waxing poetic. There's enough material to be mined in this thread to sustain a small army of journalists writing for many tabloids. I can see the headlines already - BREAKING NEWS: CONNECTORS AND ELVIS DISCOVERED ON MARS, BOTH ALIVE AND WELL

6. Identity Management Is a Lifestyle, a guest blog by Tom Ebner. While having been out in the blogosphere wild for a short period of time, the meteoric rise in popularity of this blog can be easily explained by its manifesto-like message. From one man's 7 years of experience in leading the creation and deployment of IAM infrastructure and services for a Fortune 500 company to a 1-page collection of rules on how to succeed with such an effort. It moved up to the #6 in our Top 10 in just a few weeks.

7. Provisioning Active Directory - Best Practices. A guest blog by Martin Sandren talking about how to deal with that wonderful Microsoft product/service/pile of stuff we have come to know, cherish and love. Memo to Martin: when is the book coming out? Suggested book title: Active Directory: Alien Mummy Goes On Rampage! If you take me up on the title, it'll be placed next to other good literature at supermarket checkout counters and you'll be guaranteed a financial windfall. Don't forget to share the royalties!!!

9. Will the Real Oracle Identity Management Please Stand Up (Part III) . The first two parts of this 3-part series were a lengthy prologue to the blockbuster revelation in part III. Here I explained the difference between "legacy" Oracle identity management stack (OSSO, OAS, OID) and the "current" stack (OIM, OAM, et al). With 11g shipping, I will need to do a Part IV soon.

10. Virtual Truth, Chapter 1. I ran out of parts and volumes so I had to start using chapters as my sequencing device. This blog post was my paean to virtual directories as a neat architectural solution for whatever ails you (errr, enterprises). I continue to be impressed with Oracle Virtual Directory, it's like a Swiss knife that can slice, dice and cook you breakfast.

11. The Big Bite. A limerick commemorating the acquisition of Sun by Oracle, this is one of my better attempts at worldwide fame and I could not leave it out of the Top 10 so I changed the rules and called it Top 11. Dear Larry Ellison: I know you've read the limerick and you liked it so I would appreciate an invitation to the next regatta. Please do remember to bring champaigne and caviar. Toodles for now, Deb.

Honorable mention: Opt Me In, Opt Me Out. An essay response to a question posed by University of Rochester's Mike Conklin on his blog, this post deals with an identity management solution to managing the membership of a mailing list.